#4
Optimize Your Outreach
Reaching out to potential candidates is in every recruiter’s job description, but it also requires a commitment of effort and time that can feel overwhelming. Prioritizing quantity over quality with generic bulk emails or messages that feel copied-and-pasted is not a winning strategy, though. Instead, work to continuously optimizing your outreach.
44% of tech professionals are considering changing employers in the next year, according to the Dice Tech Sentiment Report. Those candidates who are actively searching are, of course, more likely to respond to outreach (if the role sounds like a good fit for their experience and skillset). For passive candidates, it’s even more critical that recruiters get the outreach right. By continuously testing and optimizing your outreach efforts, you’ll be more aware of what’s increasing your response rate.
It's no secret that personalizing your outreach can boost response rates. It may take additional time to draft individual messages, but making a candidate feel like the message is unique to them almost guarantees a higher response in the long run. There are multiple ways to personalize your outreach, such as the type of message you send (email, direct message, phone call) or the length of the message.
Personalizing your outreach establishes trust and creates a positive atmosphere for candidates. It also supports a positive experience with your brand, your agency’s brand and/or your employer’s brand.
Here are a few ways you can start optimizing your outreach today:
A/B Test to Find What Works
Testing elements in your recruitment outreach with a method like A/B testing refines your approach, turning guesswork into data-driven decisions. By experimenting with different messaging and tactics, you'll identify what truly resonates with top tech talent, increasing your chances of building a strong talent pipeline.
Get an Insider Perspective
When possible, share your outreach messaging with someone you know who has a similar role to the job description. Their feedback can illuminate whether your message resonates with the target audience and if it highlights the role's most compelling aspects.
Focus on Your Email or Direct Message Subject Lines
Try asking a question or including their first name. Email subject lines need to be short and to the point. According to Campaign Monitor, emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened.
Show Evidence of Interest from Others
Mention the hiring manager for the position or your organization's CEO or CTO in your outreach to show that there are multiple people from the company interested in the expertise and skillset the candidate offers.
Ease Into the Ask
Don’t pitch the job right away. Ask for a brief call or to meet over coffee where you can establish trust and a friendly rapport. This will also allow you to learn what’s most important to the candidate right now so you bring them more relevant opportunities.
Mention Motivating Factors
Including specifics about the opportunity that might be motivating factors, such as salary range or fully-remote/flexible work options, could entice a candidate to respond to learn more about the opportunity.
Keep Lines of Communication Open
Test follow-up cadences with candidates who don’t respond or were not interested initially. (Maybe it wasn’t a good time to switch jobs six months ago, but now the candidate feels differently.)
Connecting with Technologists on Dice
Recruiters have access to Instant Messaging and Private Email — two Dice tools that create seamless lines of communication. Recruiters and technologists can initiate real-time conversations through Instant Messaging, and with Private Email, recruiters can contact technologists while preserving personal email information. Because of this, Dice Private Emails see a 71% higher open rate than the industry average.